By Catherine Lee Davis

Chadsworth’s Columns

My affinity for columns goes back a long way. My father went to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville for both undergraduate and law schools so I grew up in the shadow of Thomas Jefferson with his remarkable classical sense and Palladian perspective that he brought to this country. There is a very specific way to use columns, from choosing the right capital to the right dimension of the shaft. When done correctly, columns lend majesty and open up the space. The modernist approach is to take out all the walls but a more classic practitioner can define the space in a very graceful way via the use of the appropriate column selection.